Tax Amnesty Policy Discourse in Perspective of Politic of Taxation

Pro and cons have been raised of the tax amnesty policy initiated by the government. Even the policy proposals have been viewed as potentials to increase distrust between the government and the people. Aside from hurting sense of justice, the absence of roadmap and the lack of defined prerequisites of successful tax amnesty have raised suspicions of hidden agenda behind the tax amnesty initiatives. The objective of this research is to analyze the policy formulation in the process of the legalization of tax amnesty occurring in 2015 until May, 2016 based on data from literature, documentation, as well as observation studies. The results show that the discourses on tax amnesty have occurred because of lack of government's transparency in showing the urgency and significance of the tax amnesty, as well as cost and benefits for the people of Indonesia. This is indicated by the absence of a roadmap that can convince people that the tax amnesty is a necessity in the political situation at this time, and will benefit the entire people of Indonesia in both the short term and the long term. The political environment in the discussions on the Tax Amnesty draft indicates the two-polar opinions to the draft correlate to the political factions voicing the opinions. The dynamics of the discussion in the Parliament as well as changes in the Tax Amnesty draft from original proposal from the government show political dynamic processes and some pressure groups that are involved in it. This research recommends the strengthening of political communications of taxation in order to create transparency and accountability so that distrust between states and people can be minimized. In addition, the government should change its paradigm of taxation by changing the view of taxation as not only as state budget collection machine, but also as an instrument of democratization.